


Tell Me You Believe in Love (It's Not An Illusion)

by FallingLikeThis



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Boys Kissing, Except he's still in 1D, Harry and Liam like each other but neither will say anything, M/M, brief mention of Ziam, but it's not a thing, it's just a hobby, magician! Liam, seriously they just want their boys to get together already, sneaky Zayn/Niall/Louis, sorry to possibly get your hopes up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-03-18 18:31:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3579579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallingLikeThis/pseuds/FallingLikeThis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Liam had been avoiding it all night but the fans had been calling for it for the last five minutes straight. And now, Harry was pouting at him, because he was apparently a devil spawn just like the rest of Liam’s god awful mates. So, of course, that was when Liam caved.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>  <em>“So, you want some magic, Vegas?” Liam called into his microphone.</em></p><p> </p><p>  <em>There were screams of yes from the whole audience.</em></p><p> </p><p>  <em>It was sort of incredible. He might actually have been soaring from it. And he hadn’t even done anything yet.</em></p><p> </p><p>  <em>“Well, let’s do some magic then!” </em></p><p> </p><p>Or</p><p>Liam gets a new hobby and his boys figure out a way to use it to get Liam and Harry to admit their feelings for each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Me You Believe in Love (It's Not An Illusion)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dramaturgicallycorrect](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dramaturgicallycorrect/gifts).



> This started with a friend ranting about how "Illusion" brought up images of Liam doing close up magic and how she desperately needed a fic about it. And since she mentioned Liam pulling things from Harry's hair, I determined that it _must_ be a Lirry. 
> 
> Special thanks to [catbixby2060](http://archiveofourown.org/users/bixcattv/pseuds/catbixby2060) for being an awesome beta and always making me feel like an amazing writer. And to [louissass](http://archiveofourown.org/users/louissass/pseuds/louissass) for the britpick and incredible work in helping to fill in the holes I left behind in my first draft. You guys rock.

He still can’t pinpoint exactly where it came from, the sudden urge to learn close-up magic.

Maybe it was Louis suggesting that he didn’t think any one of them had quick enough hands while they were watching that Penn and Teller show that one time (not even Harry, with his famous juggling prowess). Maybe it was the need to know something that the others didn’t, a need to impress when most things going on around him felt more like they were being _suppressed_. Maybe it was the way his life felt like it was slipping through his fingers, the feeling bringing with it the need to regain some kind of control. Whatever the reason, Liam had been determined to make his hands faster than the eyes watching him at any given moment. And he was doing pretty well if he did say so himself.

Liam had ordered all the books on sleight of hand with the best reviews on Amazon. He’d started with the basics, things he already had, a few coins, a deck of cards. He could make a coin disappear (his French drop was pretty spectacular according to Zayn), he could guess your card with 100% accuracy (trade secret, that, but he’d tell you if he could), and he was getting better and better at pulling things from rather unexpected places (this was a favorite of Louis’, as he would point to things that were getting increasingly more inappropriate and say “pull a coin out of that”, and, of course, Liam would do it). Slowly, Liam had built up his skills until he was a pretty damn good magician, performing some of the more difficult illusions with practiced ease.

But where Louis used Liam’s newfound talents for his own wicked amusement and Zayn had always been quietly encouraging, Harry and Niall actually seemed to enjoy letting Liam practice his illusions with them. Niall laughed at every turn like the lively spirit he was, and Harry always seemed awed at the machinations of Liam’s fingers, like he was actually pulling magic from the air. And maybe for Harry, he was. The boy had never had trouble trusting in things that others had little to no confidence in. That was one of Liam’s favorite things about him.

So, was it any wonder that Liam took to doing his magic mostly for Harry? Striving to earn a delighted grin when he pulled Harry’s card from between the silky waves of his hair, or an elated laugh when he made something disappear from his own hand and reappear in Harry’s. He thrived off the other boy’s reactions. But just like the illusions he used to entertain Harry, Liam was looking far too closely at the situation he was in to see the actual magic that was occurring.

Fortunately, Louis, Zayn, and Niall could see it all. And even if Liam wasn’t always certain of their motivations, his boys always had his back.

 

~~@~~

 

“Hey Liam,” Louis called as they walked past a vending machine at the arena. “I’m thirsty. How about pulling some coins out of somewhere completely improbable for me to get a drink with?”

Liam wasn’t sure if Louis was joking about the drink or not, but he’d learned a long time ago that you play along with Louis’ games or suffer the consequences.

“How much do you need, mate?”

“Hmm,” Louis hummed as he checked the machine. “75 cents.”

“Easy enough,” Liam shrugged and breathed into his hands, rubbing them together, like his magic fingers needed to be warmed up. “Harry? You up for it?”

Harry, for his part, stood still and flipped his hair, faux-preening as everyone stared at him, and offered his ear to Liam, batting his lashes at the magician.

“You ready?” Liam asked. He liked to pretend he didn’t love the attention.

“Always.”

“Alright, hold out your hand, Tommo,” Liam ordered, moving his hand behind Harry’s ear and pulling one, two, three quarters, dropping each into Louis’ hand as he produced them.

“Thanks, Leemo,” Louis offered as he studied the selections.

Liam smirked. “Don’t thank me, mate. They had to have originally come from somewhere that wasn’t behind Harry’s ear. And that somewhere was _your_ pocket,” Liam said, leading a giggling Harry off to their dressing room before Louis had the chance to reply.

Louis checked his pockets, but there was always a mish-mash of stuff in there, so he really couldn’t be sure if Liam was telling the truth. He shrugged, turning back to the vending machine and getting a drink nonetheless. There were plenty of free ones in the dressing room but that was too far and Louis was thirsty _now_.

“You think they’ve snogged yet?” Niall wondered aloud, watching after his disappearing band mates with a thoughtful look.

“No way,” Zayn answered, not even bothering with a glance at the boys in question. “They’d both be blushing to the tips of their ears every time they saw us, if they had.”

“And since Harry is Liam’s new change purse, we’ve seen Harry’s ears often enough to know that he’s not blushing,” Louis finished wryly, before popping open his drink and taking a swallow.

 

~@~

 

“You should do that during a show,” Harry told Liam, looking at the boy’s reflection in the mirror as Lou toyed with his hair.

“Do what?” Liam asked, his face scrunched up in confusion. They hadn’t actually been talking about anything for a while now, he was just idly playing with his deck of cards as he waited for his turn in Lou’s chair.

“Your magic,” Harry answered.

Liam looked doubtful.

“I don’t think I’m good enough to be a stage act, Haz,” he joked. “Besides, there are a lot of cameras out there, what if someone caught on to how the trick was done? I’d hate to ruin the illusion for everyone else.”

Harry rolled his eyes as Lou finished and let him up from her chair. “Of course you’re good enough, you numpty.”

“In you go, Liam,” Lou called, capturing Liam’s attention until he was settled firmly in the chair.

Harry leaned over his shoulder, watching him in the mirror as he whispered in Liam’s ear. “And there’s no way you’d ruin anything, Li. You’re amazing.”

Liam watched Harry’s reflection wink at him and plant a loud, playful kiss to his cheek before sauntering off with a grin. His eyes trailed after Harry as he exited the room before they flickered to Lou, who was silently watching him with a smirk, and blushed when he realized he’d been caught. 

Liam let his eyes fall to his lap. He couldn't help it if Harry had a nice bum.

And if Liam slipped a few tricks up his sleeve before he went out on stage that night, it was because he wanted to. It wasn’t a big deal.

It wasn’t.

 

~@~

 

Liam didn’t actually get the courage to try anything on stage that night. Or, you know, _at all_. In the end, it was the boys who made him cave and perform a few tricks on stage. In Las Vegas, no less.

 Liam remained blissfully ignorant until just before the show when Louis said, “Oh, by the way, we promised the crowd tonight that you’d do some magic for them.”

“What?” Liam asked, patting his pockets. He had a few things on him but not much. Nothing show-worthy. “I’m not prepared!”

Harry showed Liam the tweets that were the harbingers of his doom with a stern, “Always check twitter before we have a show, Liam. You know how Louis is”. However, he did look sympathetic and didn’t appear to be in on the coup so Liam wasn’t going to hold it against him.

 

“Zayn!” Liam groaned when he saw Zayn’s tweet. “This is why so many of the fans think we’re sleeping together.”

Zayn just shrugged with a smirk. Liam thought maybe Zayn secretly enjoyed riling the fans up. A trait picked up from Louis, no doubt.

“Go grab some of your doodads,” Niall told Liam, pushing him back toward their dressing room.

“Doodads. Unbelievable, Niall, absolutely unbelievable.” Zayn grumbled under his breath but was otherwise no help.

Liam rushed to the dressing room. He had no time, but he was not willing to let down their fans, not today. If magic was what they’d been promised, then magic they would receive. He looked around, grabbing the first things he saw. So really, it was the other boys’ fault for what happened next.

Liam would have to thank them one day.

 

@}-----

 

Liam had been avoiding it all night but the fans had been calling for it for the last five minutes straight. And now, Harry was pouting at him, because he was apparently a devil spawn just like the rest of Liam’s god awful mates. So, of course, that was when Liam caved.

“So, you want some magic, Vegas?” Liam called into his microphone.

At first there were screams of _yes_ but then somewhere in the audience a group started singing. And it caught on, spreading through the crowd like fire, until the whole audience was serenading Liam that “ _everything you do is MAGIC”_.

It was sort of incredible. He might actually have been soaring from it. And he hadn’t even done anything yet.

And, right. Magic. Best give them a good show.

“Well, _let’s do some magic then!_ ”

The crowd roared with approval.

“First of all, I am going to need a lovely assistant,” Liam told them and they went wild again, tripping all over themselves trying to be picked by Liam and hopefully be invited to the stage. He felt bad for a second, because he couldn’t possibly pick one fan and leave the rest feeling rejected. Quickly, he looked at the other boys but only Harry seemed to be paying attention at the moment. “How about you, good sir?”

There were a few boos in the audience but most of the fans took it well enough, some even laughing as Harry jumped for joy at being picked. Liam loved how Harry was playing along as though he were an actual fan and not someone who _knew_ most of Liam’s tricks already.

“What’s your name, sir?”

“Harry Styles,” Harry answered breathlessly, as though everyone didn’t already know his name. And Liam was once again glad that he’d picked Harry, because he knew that the other boys would have come up with a dirty pseudonym. Something like Meso Horny. He realized he’d been friends with Niall and Louis for far too long when he knew these things without question.

“Harry Styles, that’s a lovely name,” Liam was going to make a whole bit out of it.

“Thank you,” Harry answered as he twirled a curl around his finger and batted his eyelashes. “My mum gave it to me.”

Liam chuckled. “Well, Harry, I need you to look at my hands for me.”

Harry made a confused face as he glanced as Liam’s hands that he was holding out flat, palms down.

“What about them?”

“Do they seem steady to you? This is a hard trick, I need steady hands.”

Harry squinted at Liam’s hands, bending down so he was eye level with them and could study them closer, before he straightened up. “Yep, pretty steady.”

“Ok, do they seem sweaty? I can’t afford to let them slip either.”

Harry first looked at Liam’s hands again and then grabbed them, flipping them over and looking at the palms before rubbing his fingers over them. It felt really nice, Harry’s hands were warm and soft, dancing all over his palms, but Liam was not going to think about that, not right now. He couldn’t afford that kind of distraction. Especially in front of an audience that was all too observant.

“They’re a little sweaty,” Harry told him with an apologetic face.

“Oh damn,” Liam said, pouting. “Do you have something I could wipe them off with?”

Harry patted himself down, both front and back pockets (Liam noticed the fans seemed to scream a little louder when Harry touched his bum, but he wasn’t going to think about that, either). When he found nothing, Harry shook his head and shrugged apologetically, and it made Liam smile.

“Why don’t you use that handkerchief in your back pocket, Liam?” Zayn said from the other side of the stage, where he was sitting on the stairs with Niall and Louis, all of them watching now.

Liam looked at his back pocket in surprise, finding his blue handkerchief hanging there. “Oh, good idea, Zayn. Thank you.”

Liam pulled his handkerchief out of his back pocket and started to wipe off his hands with it when he noticed that there was laughter coming from the audience.

"What?" he asked them, suppressing a small smile, and then looked at where they were pointing.  His handkerchief was attached to another, more colorful scarf. “Oh, I don’t know how that happened. That’s embarrassing.”

He pulled the extra scarf out and another was attached to it. This one looked an awful lot like one of Harry’s head scarves.

“Hey!” Harry said recognizing the fabric, but he was smiling so Liam knew that he didn’t really mind him using it.

“All I have to say is that Louis is not allowed to do the laundry anymore,” Liam said pulling more scarves out of his pocket.

“Ha! Joke’s on you, Payno,” Louis said, looking smug from his seat. “That’s what I was going for. Freedom is _mine_.”

Liam had his hands full by this point and one of the scarves appeared to be caught on something in his pocket. “I think I’ve got the last one, it just won’t come loose. Can you give it a tug for me, Harry?”

Liam relinquished his hold on the last scarf as Harry took it in his hand.

“Just yank? What if I tear it?” Harry asked, genuinely worried.

“It’ll be fine,” Liam reassured him. “Just tug it.”

“Okaaay,” Harry said, sounding dubious about it, but obeying nonetheless. He yanked and the last scarf came free. But attached to it was a very familiar pair of red boxer briefs.

Liam dropped the bundle of fabric in his hands suddenly and covered his crotch looking pained.The crowd burst out laughing, catching on to the joke immediately.

“It’s not fine,” he squeaked.

The other boys were laughing hysterically and Harry was staring at the underwear in his hands and trying very hard not to join them.

“Talk about an atomic wedgie,” Niall commented when he could breathe again.

“Are you okay, Liam?” Harry asked unable to hold back a giggle or two.

“Yeah,” Liam let out as he straightened slowly and stretched out a bit to make it clear that he was working on his recovery.

“Are you good to go on?” Harry questioned, putting a hand on Liam’s shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll power through it,” Liam answered putting on a brave face. “I’m going to need that handkerchief though.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll untangle it for you,” Harry offered, getting to work on getting the fabric loose from the rest of the pile, which he carefully placed on the side of the stage once the hanky was free. Only Harry Styles, honestly. 

Liam took a deep breath. This really was the hard part. He hadn’t even really done any magic yet but it was good to know that he could put on a decent show when the situation called for it.

“Here you go,” Harry announced, holding the handkerchief out to Liam.

“Wait. Hold it for a second,” Liam said, stretching again and drawing a few more laughs out of the audience. “Okay, I think I’m good.”

Liam took the handkerchief, very deliberately wiped his hands with it and threw it over his shoulder for a second. “Now, lovely assistant. Does there appear to be anything in my hands?”

Harry watched Liam’s hands with a small smile as he twirled them in front of him, fingers splayed wide to show nothing between them. “No.”

“Good. Okay. I am going to ball my hand into a fist,” Liam said, doing as he’d stated, “and place the handkerchief over it. And then, I want you, Harry, to say the magic word.”

“What’s the magic word?” Harry asked once Liam’s hand was covered.

“I don’t know. I thought you knew,” Liam admitted, looking worried.

“Please?” Harry guessed.

“I dunno. We can try it,” Liam said, raising the handkerchief. In his hand was a small, folded piece of paper. Harry plucked it out and unfolded it.

“It’s not ‘please’,” he read. A rumble of laughter emitted throughout the stadium.

“Guess we’d better try again,” Liam said closing his fist and re-covering it. Harry nodded, re-folding the piece of paper and stuffing it in his back pocket, before concentrating on the task at hand.

“Um. Open Sesame?” Harry tried.

Liam uncovered his hand again. This time there was a condom in it. Liam dropped it like it was on fire.

“Wrong magic word,” He said, looking a little traumatized as Harry picked up the condom and put it in his pocket.

“Get in there, Hazza!” Louis cheered as the rest of the audience joined in.

Harry gave a cheeky wink. “You never know.”

“Harry, focus, please,” Liam called sternly.

“Sorry,” Harry said with a cheeky grin, not meaning it for a second.

“Abracadabra!” Harry guessed more confidently this time and Liam uncovered his hand with a flourish to reveal a feathered flower. A red rose.

“For my lovely, assistant,” he said offering it to Harry.

Harry gasped with a hand to his chest, a great big dimple-y smile on his face, like he’d just been told that he’d won the Miss America Pageant.

“For me?!?”

Just as he’d reached to take it, Liam stopped him.

“Wait,” Liam said. “I think we can do a little better than this.”

“What do you mean? Harry asked, looking genuinely confused at this point. Liam had never taken the trick further than this when he’d been practicing with Harry.

“This is just wire and feathers, Harry. And _my_ assistant deserves the best. So let’s see if we can wrangle just a little more magic out of this. Why don’t you blow on it? For luck. Vegas style.”

Zayn whooped loudly into his mic, and Niall laughed, repeating ‘Vegas Style’ in a funny accent a few times, but none of that mattered to Liam, because Harry was standing here in front of him, frowning and being all confused, and Liam couldn’t wait to see his reaction to the rest of the trick. He’d never tried it before, it was thankfully one of those tricks that didn’t require two people to perform, meaning Liam could practice on his own, keeping it back as his secret weapon for special occasions. Liam would argue this was a _very_ special occasion.

Harry looked at Liam suspiciously for a second but blew on the flower, eyes widening in amazement when the feathers started fluttering away to expose a real rose.

Liam smiled at Harry and held the rose out but the boy appeared too stunned to recognize the gesture so Liam tucked it gently behind Harry’s ear and turned to bow for his applauding audience as Niall called a “let’s hear it for the Great Payno!”

And maybe he didn’t know the significance of it but he did notice when Harry moved the flower to wear it in his hair, the red shining out at Liam from the corner of his eye for the rest of the night.

 

@}------

 

They were about to leave their hotel in Vegas after three eventful days. After the success of the first night, the boys had made Liam do more magic at each show. He thought it might be a _thing_ they were doing now and he couldn’t say that he minded but he was going to have to learn some new tricks soon just so that it didn’t get boring for their audiences.

The problem was, however, at this very moment Liam couldn’t find his new book. It had this really complicated coin trick that he was trying to get down and he didn’t want to leave it behind. So, he’d been searching through the other boys rooms because they would steal anything and everything that he didn’t keep tucked in his bag (and sometimes the things that he did).

Liam knocked on Harry’s door last, bouncing impatiently on the balls of his feet as he waited for the other boy to open up.

Harry opened the door and smiled, pleasantly surprised at who he found standing there.

“Liam!” He exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide in greeting.

“Hey, Harry,” Liam said distractedly, missing the way Harry’s face fell as he rushed into the room, looking around for his book.

“Have you seen that book I was reading the other night?” Liam asked.

“Um, which one?” Harry questioned, sitting on the end of the bed.

 _What_ was the name of it? This would be so much easier if Liam could just remember.

He sighed as he pulled open empty cabinets. “I don’t remember. But it was hardback. With a purple cover.”

“Oh, yeah, no. I haven’t seen that one,” Harry told him, suddenly rising from the bed and pushing Liam toward the door. “But I’ll let you know if I find it.”

“We’re about to leave, Harry,” Liam argued, not letting Harry get rid of him that easily. “Please, just let me look around. I don’t want to leave it.”

Liam skirted around the other boy and dashed toward the night stand to check in there.

“Don’t!” Harry called before sighing to himself when Liam pulled the book out.

Harry ran a hand through his hair nervously as Liam gave him a betrayed look.

“You knew where it was. Harry, if you wanted to read it, you could have just asked,” Liam said earnestly.

“I didn’t want to read it, Liam,” Harry said, walking over and taking the book from Liam’s hands. “I just needed something heavy. I’m sorry, I should have asked.”

“But why did you lie about it?”

“Can I just bring the book back to you in a few minutes?” Harry asked, holding the book to his chest.

“Yeah, sure,” Liam told him with a sad shrug.

He looked like a kicked puppy when Harry refused to trust him with whatever his secret was and Harry couldn’t handle it. Had never been able to handle sad Liam, really.

“Wait,” Harry changed his mind, reaching out to grab Liam’s arm before the unhappy boy could slip away.

Harry laid the book on the bed and opened it, revealing a pressed flower tucked between its pages.

“Why..?” Liam was confused for a second before he realized that the flower he was looking at was a red rose. “Is that the flower from the other night?”

“Yeah,” Harry answered, wrapping the hem of his shirt up in his fingers anxiously.

“You kept it?”

“Of course, I kept it. _You_ gave it to me” Harry answered, refusing to meet Liam’s eyes.

Liam didn’t know what to say to that. But he knew how he felt. After so long trying to push down his own feelings, Liam wasn’t able to ignore the pang in his chest at Harry keeping this small, insignificant token because _Liam_ had given it to him. He took an unsure step forward.

“You have to tell me if I’m reading this wrong,” Liam told him softly as he placed his hands on Harry’s hips.

Harry looked up at last; wide eyes locked with Liam’s as Liam leaned forward slowly, giving Harry ample time to pull away.

Harry sighed happily. “ _Finally_ ,” he whispered as he met Liam halfway, wrapping his arms around Liam’s neck and kissing the boy with everything he had.

 

~@~

 

So, really, Liam owes Louis, Zayn, and Niall _BIG time_. Not that he’ll admit it. And he’s given them plenty of material to work with for the next few months of the tour simply by existing and having a boyfriend. So he figures they’re pretty even.

(“Hey, Liam. Why don’t you pull me a soda out of Harry’s ass?”

“He’d have to get his head out of there first.”

“Good one, Niall.”)

Of course, Liam’s boyfriend is _awesome_ at making their mates regret they said anything in the first place.

(“No room for his head. His dick’s too big.”

“TMI, Harry.”

“What did we say about sex talk on the bus?”

“You started it.”)

And sometimes Liam thinks that Harry is the real magician. Because while Liam was busy learning a few magic tricks, Harry was stealthily stealing his heart.

And his love for Harry, well, that’s no illusion.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
